Fumbled away

Late in the third quarter, William Chrisman was knocking at Lee’s Summit North’s goal-line, threatening to cut the host Broncos’ lead to 14-7.
Instead, the Bears missed that opportunity and watched North march 95 yards on 15 plays to clinch a 27-0 win over Chrisman Friday.
The Bears (1-1) had trouble stopping North’s running game – tailback Quincy Carter in particular.
North ran 47 plays on offense – all of them runs – and racked up 383 yards. Williams accounted for 193 of those yards on 10 carries with three touchdowns.
“I told the kids after the game that I can’t imagine anyone (we play) being better,” Bears coach Mike Spotts said of Williams.
Williams and the Broncos (1-1) seemed poised to run away with the game in the first quarter as he scored on runs of 19 and 72 yards, respectively, to put them ahead 14-0.
“I just saw a lot of field and kept my head up,” Williams said. “It’s wet out here. We have grass instead of turf. We’re a strong running team and did what we needed to.”
However, Chrisman’s defense stiffened, not allowing a single point during the next two quarters.
Chrisman’s offense started to take shape in the second quarter. But instead of matching North’s running game, the Bears were finding success in the air.
Quarterback Zach Dyer completed 14 of 31 passes for 174 yards. Josh Yakovitz was the main target, catching eight passes for 94 yards.
“He’s been my primary receiver pretty much since freshman year,” Dyer said. “We have a good connection.”
Yakovitz credited the offensive play calling for getting the receivers open all night.
“We got it to the flats a lot,” he said. “We were calling good plays that the defense wasn’t looking for.”
Chrisman spent quite a bit of time inside North territory, but didn’t get inside the 20 until late in the third quarter when they marched to a first-and-goal at North’s 1-yard-line.
Two runs for losses and back-to-back incompletions later and Chrisman left the drive empty-handed.
“Those are the things we’ve got to overcome,” Spotts said. “We need to get the killer instinct. When we get that close, we’ve gotta score.”
Taking over at their own 5-yard-line, the Broncos drove all 95 yards in 15 plays – all rushing plays – to put the game away.
“It’s not that we’re anti-pass,” North coach Harold Wambsgans said. “We want to throw the football. But with our field position, it wasn’t a situation where we needed to throw. We’ve worked hard on our passing game. Our receivers are good. Both our quarterbacks (Donnie Herron and Gavin Stark) can throw the ball.”
Despite the loss, most of the Bears felt there were some good things to take from this game.
“We’re very confident about next week,” Yakovitz said.
Spotts said he knows there will be several positives for his team to key on.
“We’ll watch film, and I’m sure we’ll see a lot of good things,” Spotts said. “And there are things we can’t continue to do if we’re going to win games. And I think we will. We were better tonight than we were last week (in a win over Ruskin).”
Chrisman plays its first home game of the season Friday when it hosts new school Staley (1-1). North travels to St. Joseph Central (1-1) for its Suburban Big Seven opener.